One of the greatest resources we can offer you is the opportunity to meet with a Discipleship Coach. These are trained Grace Community members who can sit down and help you discern your “spiritual address” and what you might need next on your journey forward as a follower of Jesus Christ. Meeting with a Discipleship Coach is easy and hospitable. Meetings are usually 30 minutes long and you can connect in person or on the phone. You can meet just once or for a season as you see fit and as you find it helpful. Your coach may direct you to one or more of the resources on this website. There is no cost to you for the coaching – it is part of what we feel is necessary to empower you to grow as a disciple.

If you are interested in connecting with a Discipleship Coach click here (link to themathtutor@att.net ).

A life of service certainly includes supporting the ministry of the local church by our time and energy and participating in service projects sponsored by the church, but it also includes a lifestyle of investing the best of who we are in service to others.

Resources to deepen service as a lifestyle…

Books

Get Off Your Donkey

With energy and enthusiasm, Reggie McNeal calls believers to dismount, get down and dirty, and live a life that makes a difference.

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The Lay Servant Ministries Basic Course is a foundational course designed to equip leaders. It explores personal spiritual gifts, servant leadership, each leader’s role in developing future leaders, the importance of consistent spiritual practices, the core ministries of Leading, Caring, and Communicating, and much more.

If you are considering the possibility of joining Grace Community or just want to know more about the church, you are encouraged to participate in this group experience. You will meet church pastors, staff, lay leadership and other folks exploring the church. Find out about by our worship style, discipleship, spiritual gifts, small groups, what the Methodist church teaches, the story of Grace Community and have the opportunity to explore questions of faith in a supportive and hospitable environment. Discover what is offered for the spiritual growth and encouragement of children, youth, and adults of all ages. Find out how you can participate in opportunities of service that fit your particular gifts and talents. This opportunity is offered periodically throughout the year often on a Sunday afternoon.

Appropriate for these Spiritual Growth Stages:

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Discover your spiritual gifts, personal style, and God-given passion for serving in the body of Christ You will discover the spiritual gifts God has given you and will have a better understanding of God's will for your life because of gaining a better understanding of who God created you to be. This is usually offered as a weekend seminar, but can be experienced as a six-week class as well. If you are interested in class opportunity, click on the link below.Click here for more information and a contact from Grace
Appropriate for these Spiritual Growth Stages:

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Beginning Growing Maturing

ReConnecting - A Wesleyan Guide for the Renewal of Our Congregation

ReConnecting is a seven-week or seven-session experience designed to get congregational small groups in touch with historical (Wesleyan) roots and contemporary cultural forces, so that an individual can embrace his or her "priesthood." This experience also provides an envelope for a church vision and for strategic planning used throughout a congregation and based in prayer and identity formation. This class is offered periodically at Grace Community.
Appropriate for these Spiritual Growth Stages:

B G

The Call continues to stand as a classic, reflective work on life's purpose. Best-selling author Os Guinness goes beyond our surface understanding of God's call and addresses the fact that God has a specific calling for our individual lives.

Appropriate for these Spiritual Growth Stages:

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The issues covered throughout the series include servant leadership, spiritual disciplines, maturity, spiritual gifts, calling, God's purpose for your life, transformation of individuals and community, team building, and team leading. This class is offered periodically at Grace Community.

Each chapter includes a spiritual practice to ensure your soul gets the nourishment it needs. Forging and maintaining a life-giving connection with God is the best choice you can make for yourself and for those you lead.

Appropriate for these Spiritual Growth Stages:

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Congregations today face an adaptive challenge of immense proportions. Many respond with classic signs of work avoidance: holding to past assumptions and blaming authority. Thomas Hawkins's new vision of church leadership can provide a way to break through these defensive routines. "The Learning Congregation" is a must read for all pastors and church leaders.

Appropriate for these Spiritual Growth Stages:

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After being introduced to the teachings of Jesus in Beginnings: An Introduction to the Christian Faith, participants will then ask "What are the spiritual characteristics of someone who follows Christ?" Beginnings: The Spiritual Life helps people answer that question by exploring ten habits of spirituality, as they continue their Christian journey.

Appropriate for these Spiritual Growth Stages:

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Combining a Wesleyan understanding of our growth in God’s love and grace with the time-tested practices of spiritual discipline as expressed in the membership vows to uphold the church with our presence, prayers, gifts, service, and witness, participants will discover the difference it makes to live out their commitment to Christ through membership in the United Methodist Church. They will learn that being a disciple means loving God and loving others, and they will be equipped to do that by discovering their unique gifts and becoming engaged in ministry that also brings transformation in their own hearts and lives through the love and grace of Jesus Christ. This class is offered periodically at Grace Community.

Appropriate for these Spiritual Growth Stages:

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This Spiritual Gifts Survey is designed to help you explore your Spiritual Gifts, Personality Type, and Personal Calling. The booklet can be used by individuals or it can be the basis for a class or series of classes about Spiritual Gifts. The Scriptures related to Spiritual Gifts are listed along with a list of Ministry Activities and the Spiritual Gifts that apply. Ultimately, this resource is designed to help you make some initial steps towards fulfilling you calling and purpose in Christ’s Body (the Church).

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Beginning Growing Maturing

Introducing the Missional Church: What It Is, Why It Matters, How to Become One

Focusing on a process that allows a church to discern its unique way of being missional, it guides readers on a journey that will lead them to implement a new set of missional practices in their churches. The authors demonstrate that living missionally is about discerning and joining God's work in the world in order to be a witness to God's kingdom on earth.

Appropriate for these Spiritual Growth Stages:

G M

For all the Christians facing conflict between Jesus’ words and their own lives, for all the non-Christians who feel they rarely see Jesus’ commands reflected in the choices of his followers, Red Letter Revolution is a blueprint for a new kind of Christianity, one consciously centered on the words of Jesus, the Bible’s “red letters.”

Appropriate for these Spiritual Growth Stages:

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This is a two-year advanced discipleship experience that combines Scriptural learning, experiential prayer, service to others, and a Wesleyan covenant small group connection. In the first year, the sojourners will cover five modules: Module 1: Finding and Fulfilling the Purpose of Your Life, Module 2: Falling in Love with the God Jesus Knows, Module 3: Putting on the Character of Christ, Module 4: What is the Church? - Living as a Christ-Centered Community, Module 5: Stewardship of Everything & Why Justice Matters, and Module 6: The Good News: Evangelism and Mission. The modules are separated by breaks during the year and the class suspends during two month in the summer. The first year experience of Digging Deeper begins and ends with a retreat. Digging Deeper is intended to help you discern your calling and mission in life and define a beginning “life mission statement”. In the second year, those trained in the first year will lead another group of sojourners through a similar process. Several times during the second year, these new leaders will also experience some “day retreats” with senior leadership that will help them further define their mission and vision. This experience is offered periodically.

Appropriate for these Spiritual Growth Stages:

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Part of cultivating greater hospitality toward others is beginning to understand yourself and others better. Personality evaluations like the Enneagram, the Myers- Briggs survey, PEP, and the Kiersey Personality Profile can all be tools to discover more about relating to others. At Grace Community, we have several folks who are trained to use these tools to help you. If you are interested in exploring any of these evaluations, just click on the link below and we will contact you with more information.

Appropriate for these Spiritual Growth Stages:

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At Grace Community there are multiple options for you to explore serving or leading in a hospitality role. There are options in many ministry areas including serving as an Usher or Greeter for the worship services or being a greeter in almost any ministry area like Children’s Ministry, Youth Ministry, Adult Small Groups or as a welcoming presence at mission centers like The New Room or Common Ground.

Appropriate for these Spiritual Growth Stages:

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Sometimes the best way to explore how God might be calling you to serve is to simply make a commitment to serve or observe just once at a ministry or a mission location. This could involve offering to “shadow” someone involved in Hospitality ministry on Sunday (Ushers, Greeters, Coffee Servers), visit our Children’s or Youth Ministry or even check out our off-campus mission sites at the The Room (North Shreveport) or with our partners at Common Ground Community in Cedar Grove. You won’t be expected to “jump in” unless you want to and you will be able to ask questions, watch what happens and see how you might fit in. To explore this simply click the link below to find more.

Appropriate for these Spiritual Growth Stages:

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If you have already tried serving in one or more areas at Grace Community, our mission sites or in some other capacity in our community (Scouts, Rescue Mission, Food Bank, Tutoring etc.) then it might be time to make a commitment to serve in the area you feel most gifted in. This simply means declaring your desire to be a regular part of that ministry area or opportunity. As serving others becomes a holy habit, you will continue to grow in love of God and your fellow human beings. This is the Way of Christ. If you are wondering what you are gifted in, take a look at the resources below. If you want to meet with a Discipleship Coach about serving contact the Coaching Team at the top of this page.

Appropriate for these Spiritual Growth Stages:

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In The Path, best-selling author Laurie Beth Jones provides inspiring and practical advice to lead readers through every step of both defining and fulfilling a mission. With more than ten years' experience in assisting groups and individuals, Jones offers clear, step-by-step guidance that can make writing a mission statement take a matter of hours rather than months or years. Rich with humor, exercises, mediations, and case histories, The Path is essential reading for anyone seeking a lighter, clearer way in the world.

Appropriate for these Spiritual Growth Stages:

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If you are interested in traveling to a different country to serve on a short-term mission trip, Grace provides periodic opportunities to do this. In the past, mission groups have traveled to Haiti, Mexico and Honduras to help build medical facilities, houses, conduct a Children’s Bible School, provide medical care, and help build churches in these areas. These trips are usually ten days to two weeks long and require that you raise or provide part or all of your expenses. The trips are often led by Grace members who have been before and know the area.